Indonesians eye Australian property

Indonesians eye Australian property

JAKARTA (JP): PT Procon Indah, a property consultant
collaborating with Jones Lang Wootton, will hold an Australian
property exhibition here to lure a crowd of prospective buyers
among Indonesia's high-income group.

The company said here yesterday that Australia had in the last
few years overtaken Singapore as the most popular nation for
Indonesian property investors.

Company technical advisor, Tim Willing, said the number of
Indonesians investing in Australian real estate had increased
steadily year to year.

The trend occurred because the Australian property market
provided security and investment safety not available in the
volatile Asian property market, he added.

"The Australian property market is a very mature market with
an average 8 percent appreciation every year for the past 30
years," he said.

He said his company would exhibit Moore Park Gardens, one of
the new properties in Sydney, at the Grand Hyatt on Saturday and
Sunday.

Moore Park Gardens overlooks Sydney and is only minutes away
from two of Australia's leading universities, the University of
Sydney and the University of New South Wales.

Willing said some Indonesians usually bought property in
Australia to use it to house their children studying there.

"Australia is the first choice of Indonesian students and is
the most popular country for parents to send their children to be
educated," Willing said.

"There are currently about 15,000 Indonesian students in
Australia, where education is very good with excellent schools,
colleges and universities that are among the best in the world,"

In addition to educational interests, Indonesian investors
also saw other advantages to property investment in Australia
including the quality of buildings, he said.

He said that it was very easy for Indonesians to buy property
there, while financing was also easy to approve with 5.5 percent
interest per year.

To buy Australian property, an investor was required to make a
deposit of only 10 percent and then pay no more until
construction was completed, he added.

"Moreover, investors can borrow up to 80 percent of the
purchase price."

In addition to Sydney, Perth was also popular with Indonesian
investors as it offered a high quality lifestyle and excellent
education, he said. (icn)